MySQL for PHP Programmers, Apache Home Cooking, and ONLamp 2003

Greetings, readers. With 2003 winding down, it's time to review the world
of 2003 and prepare for the world of 2004. That means editorial plans and
calendars. So far, the plan is to carry on along similar lines. One new
feature of 2004 will be an increased focus on open source applications--Linux and the BSDs on the desktop, as it were. As always, your feedback is appreciated.

Dru Lavigne took a break from her soon-to-be-revealed secret project
(you'll all like it) to pen another FreeBSD Basics column. As usual, it
applies across all sorts of free Unix-workalikes. Hiding
Secrets with Steganography explores the world of hidden data. For
example, you can hide Grandma's super-secret chocolate chip cookie recipe in
her picture. No, not in the frame--in an image file. Curious? Read on.

New author Giuseppe Maxia joins the fray with Generating
Database Server-Side Cross Tabulations. That's quite a title, but it
pales beside the SQL required to accomplish the goal. The explanation is,
fortunately, much simpler. If you're familiar with crosstabs or pivot tables,
he explains how to generate the SQL automatically. If you're not familiar
with the technique, this is how you can take a result containing one column of
gender and another of department and turn department into rows, counting the
number of men and women for each department. It's very useful.

In a less brain-hurting sense, Rich Bowen ("Apache Cookbook" coauthor)
contributes the first in a series entitled "A Day in
the Life of #Apache". This series examines real-world questions that come
up on the popular IRC channel, going into the whys and hows of answering these
questions. Think of it as "Commonly Asked Questions about Apache" meets
"Things the Manual Doesn't Teach You".

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ONLamp.com and Linux Devcenter Top Five Articles Last Week

Using and Customizing Knoppix
Several Linux distributions boot directly from CD-ROMs. How
many are usable in that state? How many are customizable in
that state? Klaus Knopper's Knoppix is perhaps the best known
of these distributions. Robert Bernier explains how to use
Knoppix and how to customize your own self-booting distribution CD.

Installing Oracle 9iR2 on Red Hat 9
While Oracle's understandably proud of their Linux support,
Oracle 9i is unsupported on the latest and greatest Red Hat.
That doesn't mean it doesn't work, just that you'll have to
do a little tinkering. Roko Roic demonstrates how to install
Oracle 91R2 on Red Hat 9.

Introducing mod_security
Every layer of security you can add is one more deterrent for the
bad guys. Writing (or choosing) secure code is important, but
it's not the only defense. Ivan Ristic, creator of mod_security,
explains how this Apache module can turn back potential attacks
before they reach your code.

RouteWord: An Interesting Diversion
Graphs--loosely connected, unordered collections of nodes--are
highly important to computer science. Visualizing graphs is even
more important: think of maps, routes, webs, and any other
interconnected relationships. Who says that can't also be fun?
O'Reilly author Andrew Odewahn explains how he accidentally
created a new type of word puzzle playing around with graph
visualization.